Yesterday we drove down to LA from San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway. The views were amazing! I can't even describe them to you; I guess you'll just have to wait for pictures. The water was so blue and there were mountains on the other side of the road. At one point we stopped and saw dozens of elephant seals on the beach. There were tons of people lined up on the side of the road. I think it's great that something so simple can still captivate the attention of so many people. We stopped at a local store in Big Sur for lunch and had homemade burritos. One last interesting thing about our drive down the PCH, we really really needed gas at one point and caved to buy it along the way. For $10 we got approximately 2 gallons. Luckily it was more than enough to get us to cheaper gas.
We arrived at my cousin's house in LA around 8pm. My cousin's wife, Kieu, greeted us cooked us a lot of Vietnamese food. After sitting in LA traffic, it was nice to finally be out of the car!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
San Francisco
Before this trip I always spelled San Francisco wrong, and now I'm pretty sure that I'll never spell it wrong again. Speaking of San Francisco...today was a whirlwind day! We got up early again hoping to get tickets for Alcatraz and even arrived at the pier half an hour before the first tour. Unfortunately upon our arrival we discovered that tickets were sold out until Thursday!! That was disappointing, but it did mean that we had even more time to do other things in the city.
After walking around Fisherman's Wharf for a while and finding Ghirardelli Square (I did it for you Momo), we made our way to Alamo Square. We saw the famous row of Painted Lady Victorian Houses with the San Francisco skyline in the background. You can see the row of houses in the opening credits of Full House and a number movies.
Next, I navigated my way to Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden. The maps are not drawn to scale for this part of the city and it looked a lot closer than it really was! The Garden has koi ponds, Japanese maples, and bonsai. There's even a bronze Buddha, a Shinto wooden pagoda, a Zen Garden, and an outdoor teahouse. The pictures I saw of it before hand looked really pretty and I'm glad that I found it!
Then I made my way to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to meet up with Ilona again. While I was standing on the street corner waiting for Ilona I ran into someone that I went to high school with. That was certainly unexpected! For those of you unfamiliar with "the Haight," it the center of hippie culture in the 60s. Our guidebook says, "During the 1967 'Summer of Love,' thousands of young people flooded Haight-Ashbury in search of free love, drugs, and music." You can still find a lot of interesting people and shops in the neighborhood today. Ilona and I found the former residence of the Grateful Dead. I really enjoyed this neighborhood!
Then we made our way back down to Fisherman's Wharf to take a tour of the Boudin Sourdough Bakery (my mom's request). It was a very well spent $3 for the self-guided tour and free samples. I liked watching them mix the dough and section it off for loafs. I got some really cool pictures of the animal shapes they make out of the bread, for example alligators, teddy bears, crabs, and turtles.
The last thing we did today was taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to visit with Ilona's aunt and uncle. We went out to dinner and it was a lovely visit.
Tomorrow it's time to hit the road again. I wish that I could spend more time in San Francisco. There are definitely more things that I'd like to see and do. Oh well, tomorrow we're off down the Pacific Coast Highway to LA.
After walking around Fisherman's Wharf for a while and finding Ghirardelli Square (I did it for you Momo), we made our way to Alamo Square. We saw the famous row of Painted Lady Victorian Houses with the San Francisco skyline in the background. You can see the row of houses in the opening credits of Full House and a number movies.
Next, I navigated my way to Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden. The maps are not drawn to scale for this part of the city and it looked a lot closer than it really was! The Garden has koi ponds, Japanese maples, and bonsai. There's even a bronze Buddha, a Shinto wooden pagoda, a Zen Garden, and an outdoor teahouse. The pictures I saw of it before hand looked really pretty and I'm glad that I found it!
Then I made my way to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to meet up with Ilona again. While I was standing on the street corner waiting for Ilona I ran into someone that I went to high school with. That was certainly unexpected! For those of you unfamiliar with "the Haight," it the center of hippie culture in the 60s. Our guidebook says, "During the 1967 'Summer of Love,' thousands of young people flooded Haight-Ashbury in search of free love, drugs, and music." You can still find a lot of interesting people and shops in the neighborhood today. Ilona and I found the former residence of the Grateful Dead. I really enjoyed this neighborhood!
Then we made our way back down to Fisherman's Wharf to take a tour of the Boudin Sourdough Bakery (my mom's request). It was a very well spent $3 for the self-guided tour and free samples. I liked watching them mix the dough and section it off for loafs. I got some really cool pictures of the animal shapes they make out of the bread, for example alligators, teddy bears, crabs, and turtles.
The last thing we did today was taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to visit with Ilona's aunt and uncle. We went out to dinner and it was a lovely visit.
Tomorrow it's time to hit the road again. I wish that I could spend more time in San Francisco. There are definitely more things that I'd like to see and do. Oh well, tomorrow we're off down the Pacific Coast Highway to LA.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, & San Francisco part 1
I feel very accomplished tonight, we officially drove across the country! Today we saw some of the most incredible scenery ever, and the Mini got the workout of it's very short life. At more than one point today it climbed to over 10,000 feet with all of our stuff loaded in the back.
This morning we were on our way out of Reno at 7:30am. The "free" continental breakfast at the hotel consisted of danishes, orange juice, and coffee without creamer or sugar. I guess you can't expect too much for $60. Anyway, we headed up the mountains towards the North side of Lake Tahoe. I instantly fell in love with the mountains and crystal clear blue water.
From Lake Tahoe we traveled to Yosemite National Park. On the way I kept taking pictures of the mountains we were driving past, and after consulting the map realized I was taking pictures of the mountains we would soon be driving through. The Mini made it up some more rather large mountains. In Yosemite we drove through the Tioga Pass and had spectacular views of cliffs, water falls, streams, trees, and more. We thought that the road leading to the Tioga Pass was twisty, but it was nothing compared to the road leaving! This was the craziest road I have ever seen! I felt like we were driving in a giant maze. It actually reminded me of driving on The Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia. These are the types of roads were you can't sneeze or else you'll drive off the side into an abyss. We were getting bored with the scenery of the Midwest and Plains States, and we definitely got what we wished for!
On our way from Yosemite to San Francisco we hit a whole bunch of traffic on the highway; between all the traffic and the asshole drivers, I felt right at home. After driving over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco we landed in what looked like the Financial District, and it looked very similar to Boston's Financial District. We found our hostel easily, but finding parking was a challenge. Anyway, after getting ourselves and the Mini settled we headed out to see the sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge. After the sunset we walked around Union Square a little bit, but since it's a Sunday night not much was open. I hate tourists in Boston and avoid the touristy areas like the plague because they're just annoying. It's weird being a tourist in another city!
We're spending two nights in San Francisco. It's a strange feeling knowing that I don't have to pack up my stuff and hit the road again tomorrow. I'm sure it'll feel even stranger tomorrow when we're not in the car. Tomorrow morning the hostel has a free breakfast, including waffles! We have a busy day planned out for tomorrow, but you'll just have to check back to see exactly what we've done.
I'm starting to view this trip as a taste test of the US. We are only in places for a very short while, and I can tell the places I'd like to visit again and the ones I never want to go back again.
This morning we were on our way out of Reno at 7:30am. The "free" continental breakfast at the hotel consisted of danishes, orange juice, and coffee without creamer or sugar. I guess you can't expect too much for $60. Anyway, we headed up the mountains towards the North side of Lake Tahoe. I instantly fell in love with the mountains and crystal clear blue water.
From Lake Tahoe we traveled to Yosemite National Park. On the way I kept taking pictures of the mountains we were driving past, and after consulting the map realized I was taking pictures of the mountains we would soon be driving through. The Mini made it up some more rather large mountains. In Yosemite we drove through the Tioga Pass and had spectacular views of cliffs, water falls, streams, trees, and more. We thought that the road leading to the Tioga Pass was twisty, but it was nothing compared to the road leaving! This was the craziest road I have ever seen! I felt like we were driving in a giant maze. It actually reminded me of driving on The Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia. These are the types of roads were you can't sneeze or else you'll drive off the side into an abyss. We were getting bored with the scenery of the Midwest and Plains States, and we definitely got what we wished for!
On our way from Yosemite to San Francisco we hit a whole bunch of traffic on the highway; between all the traffic and the asshole drivers, I felt right at home. After driving over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco we landed in what looked like the Financial District, and it looked very similar to Boston's Financial District. We found our hostel easily, but finding parking was a challenge. Anyway, after getting ourselves and the Mini settled we headed out to see the sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge. After the sunset we walked around Union Square a little bit, but since it's a Sunday night not much was open. I hate tourists in Boston and avoid the touristy areas like the plague because they're just annoying. It's weird being a tourist in another city!
We're spending two nights in San Francisco. It's a strange feeling knowing that I don't have to pack up my stuff and hit the road again tomorrow. I'm sure it'll feel even stranger tomorrow when we're not in the car. Tomorrow morning the hostel has a free breakfast, including waffles! We have a busy day planned out for tomorrow, but you'll just have to check back to see exactly what we've done.
I'm starting to view this trip as a taste test of the US. We are only in places for a very short while, and I can tell the places I'd like to visit again and the ones I never want to go back again.
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